The girlfriend getaway market: Segmenting accommodation and service preferences

The main objective of this paper is to segment the accommodation and service preferences of females who participate in girlfriend getaways (GGA). A sample of 540 female travelers revealed five distinct clusters of preferences based on the importance scores assigned to hotel attributes. The clusters are then profiled on their performance scores on hotel attributes and demographic characteristics. The results indicate that the GGA market is heterogeneous in its accommodation and service preferences but homo- geneous in its demographic characteristics. Accommodation suppliers and marketers must recognize the growing importance and profitability of this segment of the female traveler market. Implications for product development, targeting and positioning strategies, and service enhancements for this market are suggested

International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman The girlfriend getaway market: Segmenting accommodation and service preferences Catheryn Khoo-Lattimore a,b,∗ , Girish Prayag c a b c Department of Tourism, Sport & Hotel Management, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts, Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus, 47500 Subang Jaya, Malaysia Department of Management, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand a r t i c l e Keywords: Female Women Segmentation Girlfriend getaway Hospitality Hotel attributes Malaysia i n f o a b s t r a c t The main objective of this paper is to segment the accommodation and service preferences of females who participate in girlfriend getaways (GGA) A sample of 540 female travelers revealed five distinct clusters of preferences based on the importance scores assigned to hotel attributes The clusters are then profiled on their performance scores on hotel attributes and demographic characteristics The results indicate that the GGA market is heterogeneous in its accommodation and service preferences but homogeneous in its demographic characteristics Accommodation suppliers and marketers must recognize the growing importance and profitability of this segment of the female traveler market Implications for product development, targeting and positioning strategies, and service enhancements for this market are suggested Crown Copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Introduction Female travelers constitute a significant segment of the leisure ´ travel and tourism industry (Curcic et al., 2009) The female market is significant both in terms of its present and projected size Fiftyone percent of American travelers, for example, are females, with a staggering prevalence for leisure (72%) The 2012 Female Travel and Lifestyle Report reveals that nearly two out of three people in their survey of 5000 women in Australia (not necessarily Australians) have traveled overseas (Gentle, 2012) Female travelers also possess formidable financial strength (Silverstein and Sayre, 2009) by controlling over $20 trillion in world-wide spending (Kent, 2010) and making 80% of the decisions on travel and tourism (Bond, 2011) Unsurprisingly, much of the existing tourism research attempts to better understand women as travelers by segmenting the market Specifically, scholars have investigated niche markets such as solo woman travelers (Chiang and Jogaratnam, 2006; Jordan and Gibson, 2005; McNamara and Prideaux, 2010; Wilson and Little, 2008), senior women travelers (Stone and Nichol, 1999), educated women travelers (Pennington-Gray and Kerstetter, 2001), women ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Tourism, Sport & Hotel Management, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia Tel.: +61 737356712 E-mail addresses: c.khoo-lattimore@griffith.edu.au (C Khoo-Lattimore), girish.prayag@canterbury.ac.nz (G Prayag) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2014.12.003 0278-4319/Crown Copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved cruisers (Jennings, 2005), and more extensively, businesswomen travelers (Alamdari and Burrell, 2000; Foster and Botterill, 1995; Lutz and Ryan, 1993; McCleary et al., 1994; Newth, 2011; Sammons et al., 1999; Smith and Carmichael, 2007) These studies presuppose that the female travel market is heterogeneous and segmentation allows the identification of unique characteristics, attitudes and behaviors A growing segment in women’s travel that has received scant attention is the ‘all female’ leisure-travel groups, or what is commonly known as girlfriend getaways (GGAs) The GGA market generally refers to female travelers who are holidaying with other females including friends, family members, colleagues, sporting team members, and fellow members from organizations they belong to (Gibson et al., 2012) These getaways are generally short, between and days At present, limited academic research has been devoted to the accommodation needs and preferences of women on GGAs More specifically, this segment’s desired and expected attributes of the accommodation offer that contribute to a satisfactory experience remain unknown, despite the wellrecognized importance of satisfying hotel guests (Chen and Chen, 2014) Earlier studies have mainly delineated the accommodation preferences of female business travelers (Lutz and Ryan, 1993; McCleary et al., 1994; Phadungyat, 2008; Sammons et al., 1999) and found that compared to men, women generally place higher importance on safety and security provisions The main objectives of this study are to: (1) segment the accommodation and service preferences of women in the GGA market 100 C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 and (2) identify ‘niche’ segments within the GGA market based on preferences and demographic characteristics By doing so, the study contributes to the hospitality literature in two main ways First, it identifies the most salient accommodation attributes for the GGA market, thereby providing both scholars and practitioners an insight into the preferences of this female travel segment Beyond the solo women and business women traveler, the study confirms that GGA is an emerging market that is based on group orientation rather than individual orientation in travel Second, by segmenting the GGA market, this study is the first to identify profiles of ‘niches’ within the GGA market that may be of interest to both large and small accommodation providers thereby extending academic knowledge on the female-only travel groups The identified attributes may be of relevance to hotels attempting to differentiate and position their accommodation offer Literature review 2.1 Segmentation theory Segmentation is ubiquitous in the hospitality and tourism literature (Frochot and Morrison, 2001; Prayag and Hosany, 2014) It consists of dividing a market into smaller and homogeneous groups based on the assumption that customers are heterogeneous and that a differentiated market offering can satisfy them (Kruger et al., 2011) Identifying new and/or under-represented market segments is a managerial priority to grow the potential customer base and develop relevant marketing strategies in a cost-effective way while continuing to focus on existing customers (Morrison, 1996; Vellas and Becherel, 1999; Weaver and Oppermann, 2000) No absolutely “correct” segmentation method exists (Tkaczynski and Rundle-Thiele, 2010) and the researcher must find the best segmentation method to capture the hidden structure in the data set (Prayag and Hosany, 2014) Several studies segment the female consumer market to understand decision-making styles (Bakewell and Mitchell, 2003), shopping orientation (Shim and Kotsiopulos, 1993), and women’s lifestyles and consumption behavior (Tai and Tam, 1997) In the tourism and hospitality literature, priority has been given to segmentation of markets that depicts individual orientation such as independent (McNamara and Prideaux, 2010) and business travel (Smith and Carmichael, 2007) rather than travel based on group orientation such as those of the senior travel and GGA markets 2.2 Segmenting the female traveler market With respect to female travelers, Smith and Carmichael (2007) segmented the domestic female business travelers in Canada and found three distinct types of women The three groups differed in terms of demographics, travel patterns and travel activities More specifically, the segment which mixes business travel with pleasure tend to be highly educated women who take infrequent but longer trips and spend more than $500 per trip These women, who are mostly self-employed, tend to visit friends or relatives and undertake tourism-related activities, particularly those in rural settings Meanwhile, Newth (2011) also found three segments of American female business travelers based on psychographic characteristics – the connective, the productive and the empowered She found that the most important psychographic variables which differentiated the three groups are the need to connect with others, the feeling of empowerment and the feeling of being industrious More closely aligned with the purpose of this study, PenningtonGray and Kerstetter (2001) segmented educated female travelers according to the benefits they sought from their travel and reported three possible types of educated women – those who travel for relaxation, those who seek family and social interaction in their travels, and those who thrive on action and adventure Industry reports on the GGA market suggest that such travelers tend to participate in specific activities such as eating and dining out, shopping, spa visits and going to the beach/pool (AAA, 2007; Bond, 2009) Grout (2005) lists dining, shopping, road trips, sports, and indulgence in spa and luxury as typical girlfriend getaway undertakings Kasanicky (2009) suggests that culinary lessons, art classes, volunteering vacations and attending festivals or events are other possible activities relevant to the GGA market These preferences for specific activities and services suggest the need to understand the behavior of GGA market in more depth to allow for product development and service customization Yet, without an understanding of the accommodation preferences of female travelers, including the GGA market, it is difficult for hoteliers to develop customized holiday packages, improve targeting and positioning strategies 2.3 Accommodation preferences of female travelers Studies on the accommodation preferences of female leisure travelers are limited but insights can be gained from existing research on the female business travel market (Lutz and Ryan, 1993; Sammons et al., 1999; Phadungyat, 2008) Lutz and Ryan (1993), in studying the differences between male and female preferences toward hotel services, found that businesswomen placed higher priorities than men on safe and secure car parks and the ability to feel comfortable when dining in hotel restaurants Surprisingly, females in their study were indifferent to hotels’ offerings of women-only floors, female toiletries and feminine décor McCleary et al (1994) pointed out marked distinctions between male and female business travelers in the ways hotel products are consumed They noted that while men placed importance on business facilities such as office space and fax machine, women were more concerned with the hotel’s safety and security features such as dead bolt door locks, peep hole, surveillance camera, chain lock, bright hallway and parking area lighting Sammons et al (1999) study of female business travelers’ preferences for accommodation revealed that women-only floor, feminine décor (such as pastelcolored rooms) and female toiletries (bubble bath and nail polish remover) were unimportant Instead, they placed high importance on hotel cleanliness and security provisions Phadungyat (2008) confirmed that “safety and security facilities, especially ‘electrical keycard’, ‘bright hallway’, ‘sprinkler system’, and ‘closed circuit television’ are important factors for businesswomen in their selection of serviced apartments”(p 45) The importance of safety and security as a choice criterion is consistent across several studies on women travelers Interestingly, of the limited studies on women accommodation preferences, the majority focuses on Western women An exception is the study of Ariffin and Maghzi (2012) that compared Malaysian and non-Malaysian tourists on the influences of gender on expectation level of hospitality in four and five star hotel services Their study revealed that male customers were more concerned with the behavior of employees compared to their female counterparts In a Muslim tourists context, Eid and El-Gohary (2015) showed the influence of religiosity on male and female tourism choices, including its impact on the physical attributes and services offered by accommodation providers In the broader services marketing literature, gender differences on service evaluations are noted for product assessment (McDaniel and Kinney, 1998) and satisfaction judgments (Dubé and Morgan, 1998) Yet, in evaluating hotel and restaurant settings, Mattila (2000) failed to demonstrate the impact of gender on service encounter evaluations Hence, contradictory evidence exists on whether females evaluate services differently C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 from males in general and when such differences exist, they may be country/culture dependent 2.4 The GGA market and accommodation preferences Although earlier studies have delineated the accommodation preferences of female business travelers (Lutz and Ryan, 1993; McCleary et al., 1994; Sammons et al., 1999; Phadungyat, 2008), very few studies (Gibson et al., 2012) focus on women who travel with other women The GGA market is a different type of female traveler, for three reasons First, compared to women who travel solo, for business, with their spouses, and with families, the motivation of women going on girlfriend getaways is mainly friendship This is true for women of all ages and at varied life-stages (Gibson et al., 2012) The appreciation for friends as a motivation for holidays has been alluded to in leisure and sociology research (e.g Glover and Parry, 2008; Green, 1998; Kleiber et al., 2002) as well as sports studies (Lenskyj, 1994) Lenskyj (1994) for instance found that female athletes tend to enjoy and value the social interaction during sporting events While socialization and kinship as a motive for travel is well-examined in the tourism literature (Crompton and McKay, 1997; Kim and Prideaux, 2005), this motive has never been examined in the context of women traveling with other women The central role of friendship in girlfriend getaways have been found to impact holiday experiences (Berdychevsky et al., 2013) Second, the literature highlights the need for women to be relieved of their fear and frustrations with the “male gaze” during their solo holidays (Harris and Ateljevic, 2003; Pritchard and Morgan, 2000) The girlfriend getaway could possibly be a materialization of these needs, which should be carefully considered by accommodation providers in their delivery of hotel amenities and services For example, women on girlfriend getaways who travel in the security of their groups may not place safety issues as high a priority as women who travel solo for leisure and business purposes Finally, women perceive getaways with their female friends differently from the travels they on their own or the holidays they take with other people Conceptualized in what Graburn (1983) terms as rites of passage tourism, GGAs are taken to mark one’s transition from one stage to another This is confirmed in Gibson et al (2012)’s study where they found women in their adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and later adulthood (ranging from age 21 to 87) take girlfriend getaways to signify important transitions such as graduation, weddings, illness and death of a spouse This recent finding bears implications on the existing literature on female preferences for accommodation services The fact that women of all ages tend to participate in GGAs may also suggest that demographic segmentation alone may be insufficient to understand this market In terms of growth stage, the current GGA market can be paralleled to the gay segment prior to the 1980s when few dependable statistics existed As with any new emerging markets, the exact size and worth of the GGA segment cannot be accurately ascertained However, one study at least points to its potential, for example, in the U.S alone, the girlfriend getaway market represents four percent of all U.S travel spending which has developed into a $6 billion segment (AAA, 2007) The study also found that there has been an increase in women taking girlfriend getaways, from 30% in 2004 compared to 40% in 2007, and that most girlfriend getaways consist of two to three women Another study by American Express Travel found that two thirds of their 246 travel agents reported a growth in “girls-getaways” and showed that women traveling together are now seeking for more active and luxurious vacations (Wilkeming, 2007) The American Resort Development Association report of 2010 suggests that 38 percent of women have taken a GGA in the U.S and 63 percent plan on taking one in the next two years (Anon, 2010) Although there is insufficient research on consumption patterns amongst this segment, a few writers 101 have recognized the GGA trend with reports of its members being, “72% married, 60% ranging between the ages of 35 and 45 and 88% have children less than 18 years old” (Cavallari, 2008, p 8) Other reports reveal that women who take girlfriend getaways range from “Midwest mothers and daughters to affluent businesswomen to low income girls” (Euromonitor, 2010, p 3) Hence, this segment may comprise a variety of ‘niches’ that would be worthwhile studying within and outside of the US More recently, mainstream tourism and hospitality marketers have begun targeting this emerging segment of GGAs For example, Tripadvisor published its list of the top ten girlfriend getaway destinations in 2010 Other tourism establishments have followed suit with their own lists of the best GGAs must-do’s and mustgo’s (Friesen, 2013; Harranek, 2014; Ward, 2013) The number of tour operators that concentrate only on all-women’s travel has increased from 21 in 2007 to 49 in 2009 (Bond, 2007, 2009) In addition, hotels not traditionally focused on women travelers, have begun to target the all-female travel segment with new products aimed at the GGA market (e.g., The Grand Hotel’s 2014 Girlfriend Getaway Package in Michigan, USA) Non-academic literature on GGAs is on the rise (e.g Bond, 2007, 2009; Getaways, 2008; Grout, 2003, 2005; Kasanicky, 2009; Laing and Butterfield, 2002) In fact, Grout (2005) in the preface of her second edition wrote,” .we came out with the book in 2003 about the same time as the Los Angeles Times, the Detroit Free Press, Oprah Winfrey and lots of other well-known authorities started recognizing the trend I ended up getting interviewed a lot” (p i) It is clear thus far that there is awareness of GGAs being a rising segment, having already attracted the attention of media and the wider tourism industry Method 3.1 The study context Despite Asia-Pacific tourism being the fastest growing in the world in 2012 (UNWTO, 2013), academic and non-academic research on the GGA market in this region is limited However, a Mastercard International study has revealed the rising trend of mother–daughter–granddaughter travel in Asia-Pacific (Mastercard, 2005) and anecdotal evidence from the hospitality sector suggests that the GGA segment is valued by tourism and hospitality businesses For example, the Legend group of hotels in Malaysia has a “Lady Programme” that caters to female guests (Anon, 1997) Other hotels such as ‘Thistle’ and ‘Crown Princess’ in Malaysia both have ‘ladies’ only floor (Loh, 2009) It is within this context of Malaysia, where academic knowledge on the attitudes, preferences and behaviors of the GGA market is non-existent, that this study is centered upon 3.2 The survey instrument To segment the accommodation and service preferences of female only leisure groups, the survey instrument was built from multiple phases of qualitative inquiries First, a list of 77 hotel attributes of importance to female guests was generated from the literature (Lutz and Ryan, 1993; McCleary et al., 1994; Phadungyat, 2008; Sammons et al., 1999) This list was compared to accommodation and service requirements identified from the in-depth interviews of 13 Malaysian women who had been on GGA in February 2012 The women were asked to list features of the accommodation that they had particularly enjoyed during their GGAs They were also asked to make recommendations to accommodation providers on what they might like to see in their future GGA stays The interviews yielded nine additional amenities and services not identified from the literature For example, 102 C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 interviewees expressed the needs for manicure collections and the need for hotels to arrange for sightseeing in locations that interviewees were not familiar with The latter was conceptualized in the survey instrument as, “Hotel offers free transport to nearby shopping malls” Two further examples of items which were uncovered from the interviews and added to the list were the hotel’s offer of shopping vouchers and discounts for massages and spa treatments These additional service requirements were added to the list and implemented in six hotel rooms as part of an experiment The hotel rooms were equipped with as many different items on the list as possible, after which three groups of four women were invited to experience the “girlfriend getaway” rooms over a period of two days At the end of their stay and upon checkout, the women were interviewed as part of three focus groups In all three focus groups, we asked the same questions as in the initial study – what they have particularly enjoyed and what improvements they would like to make Their responses were used to refine the list into 18 specific items that would be of relevance to the GGA market irrespective of types of accommodation As a result, the survey instrument consisted of various sections The first section measured the “importance” of various attributes covering four broad areas of accommodation and service requirements: Safety and Security (4 items); Room Amenities (7 items); Food and Beverage (2 items); and Activities/Entertainment (5 items) Participants were asked to indicate how important each hotel attribute was to them when they go on girlfriend getaways on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from (not at all important) to (extremely important) The second section measured the performance of 15 attributes that were identified as problematic for women guests on a GGA trip These items were identified from the in-depth interviews and focus groups only The list was measured on a performance scale anchored on (Very Bad) and (Very Good) The last section measured several demographic (e.g., age, education level, nationality and marital status) and trip characteristics (e.g., previous stay, number of nights stayed, membership tenure with the group, and main purpose of visit) The instrument was piloted on 50 female guests that stayed with other women only at the same hotel where the experiment was carried out, after which minor modifications were made 3.3 Data collection and analysis Data were collected over a period of two months (May/June 2013) in collaboration with a resort based in Malaysia Similar to previous studies (Mattila and Mount, 2003; Tanford, 2013), potential respondents were identified from a resort’s membership database which at the time of data collection consisted of 4.84 million members, of which 2.24 million were females The resort has over 8000 rooms spread over multiple properties with different star ratings in Malaysia and Singapore From the list of 2.24 million females, two criteria were used to include members in the sampling frame First, only female members that are known to have shared their rooms with other female guest(s) only between February and March 2013 were included Second, the female members were traveling mainly for holiday purposes These criteria yielded 3856 females that had holidayed in hotels of the group in Malaysia (96.7%) and Singapore (3.3%) The survey instrument was emailed by the resort as a link to all members (2086) that had a recorded and valid in the database In order to encourage participants to fill in the online survey, they were told that they will be entered into a prize draw for a two-night complimentary stay at the resort The survey resulted in 540 useable questionnaires for data analysis purposes, excluding outliers While recent studies (e.g Dolnicar et al., 2014) have expressed concerns about sample sizes used in segmentation studies, this dataset suffers from low contamination by noisy variables (a situation whereby a substantial amount of variables is not relevant for the clustering structure) All the variables used for clustering were selected following the rigorous process of item generation and refinement described earlier Accordingly, the sample size is deemed to meet the requirements for data-driven segmentation procedures A three step procedure was employed to analyze the data In conformance to data driven segmentation procedures (Dolnicar, 2002; Dolniˇcar, 2004), Ward’s clustering method with Euclidean distances was used initially to identify possible clustering solutions Instead of the factor–cluster procedure commonly used in segmenting tourism markets (Park and Yoon, 2009; Prayag, 2010; Sarigöllü and Huang, 2005), the raw scores were used to derive the segments The factor–cluster procedure has been heavily criticized in both marketing and tourism literatures (Dolnicar and Grün, 2008; Tuma et al., 2011) for: (i) transformation of the data space that does not reflect the original items measured; and (ii) conducting factor analysis before clustering leads to approximately 40–50% of the original information lost (Dolnicar, 2007; Dolnicar and Grün, 2008) Also, measuring the importance of an attribute is considered a more stable attitudinal construct than measuring the performance of that attribute (Lounsbury and Hoopes, 1988) Accordingly, the 18 importance items were used for clustering rather than the performance items Thereafter, discriminant analysis was used to confirm the validity of the chosen clustering solution In the second step, the performance items were used to profile the clusters after factoring the 15 items In the final stage of the analysis, the identified segments were profiled on the basis of demographic and trip characteristics Findings 4.1 Sample profile The survey polled a range of age groups with more than a quarter of the sample (25.7%) being aged between 21 and 30 years old More than half of the sample (54.7%) was of Malaysian nationality Almost an equal number of females described their marital status as ‘single’ (44.7%) and ‘married’ (43.5%) The sample was well educated with 83% of respondents having at least completed secondary education and 96.9% of respondents had stayed in a hotel of the group before A more detailed sample profile is provided in Table 4.2 Cluster identification Initially, a non-hierarchical K-means clustering algorithm developed two, three, four and five cluster solutions using all 18 importance items An examination of the group membership, group sizes, and the associated dendograms for each cluster solution indicated that five clusters were more appropriate for this data Several authors (e.g Park and Yoon, 2009; Prayag, 2012), recommend that the chosen clustering solution must be the most meaningful, interpretable and distinguishable In a way, the chosen cluster solution must reflect a ‘commonsense’ segmentation approach (see Dolniˇcar, 2004) From Table 2, Cluster I (n = 162) is the largest cluster with 30% of respondents and labeled ‘Safety Conscious’ female travelers They assigned above average importance levels to all of the safety and security items except for item This cluster assigned low average importance to all other items except for items 5, 12, 14 and 15 Cluster II (n = 131) with 24.3% of respondents places above average importance to all safety and security items, except for item They assign above average importance to room amenities items, except for item They assign lower mean importance to the food and beverage and activities/entertainment items in comparison to Cluster I They were labeled ‘Safety and Amenities Driven’ Cluster III (n = 37) was the smallest cluster with 6.8% of respondents They 103 C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 Table Demographic and trip characteristics of sample Demographics Age Nationality Marital status Education level 18–20 years old 21–30 years old 31–40 years old 31–40 years old 41–50 years old 51–60 years old Malaysian Singaporean Indian Indonesian Chinese Thai Others Single Married Separated/Divorced Completed Primary Education Completed Secondary Education Graduate Degree Education Post Graduate Degree Others % Trip characteristics 8.60 25.7 16.6 13.9 22.7 12.5 54.7 22.5 6.60 5.20 5.50 3.10 2.40 44.7 43.5 11.8 14.6 32.4 37.0 13.6 2.40 Main purpose of trip Leisure Socialization Bonding Other 51.4 33.5 5.00 10.1 Membership tenure < year 1–2 years >2 years 7.00 13.9 79.1 No of nights 1–3 nights 4–6 nights >6 nights Yes No Don’t know 89.50 6.20 4.30 96.90 2.80 0.30 assigned lower mean importance levels to all safety and security items in comparison to Clusters I and II However, in comparison to Clusters I and II on average they assign higher importance levels to food and beverage items They were thus labeled ‘Food and Beverage Driven’ Cluster IV (n = 113) with 20.9% of respondents was labeled ‘Safety and Activities Driven’ This group assigned above average levels of importance to safety and security items, except for item but rated all of the room amenities items below average, except for items 5, 10, and 11 In comparison to Clusters I, II and III, on average they assigned higher levels of importance to activities and entertainment items Cluster V (n = 97) with 17.9% of respondents was labeled ‘Desirables’ In comparison to all other clusters, on average they had the highest importance ratings of all items Discriminant analysis was used to ascertain the reliability of the five-cluster solution Table shows that four statistically significant discriminant functions (DF) were extracted, explaining all of the variance in the clusters The canonical correlation between all four functions is high and significant at the 1% level, suggesting that a relationship exist between clusters and the extracted discriminant functions Generally, the chosen cluster solution should produce % Previous stay in hotel group the highest percentage of correct classification of respondents in their respective groups (Park and Yoon, 2009; Prayag, 2012; Prayag and Hosany, 2014) In this case, the classification matrix showed that 96.3% of respondents were correctly classified instead of the 95.7% and 94.8% correct classification for a three and four-cluster solution respectively 4.3 Cluster profiling by hotel attribute performance The 15 items identified from the in-depth and focus groups on problematic areas of service offer by hotels were used to profile the clusters Prior to profiling the clusters on these hotel attribute performance, factor analysis was used to reduce the 15 items to a few dimensions Using the usual criterion of KMO statistic (0.726) greater than 0.7, significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity (2 = 3686.2; p < 0.001), eigenvalues greater than one, factor loadings in excess of 0.4, and varimax rotation, revealed the existence of five factors explaining 73.2% of total variance The five factors were labeled (see Table 4): F1 (Hotel Room Amenities); F2 (Safety and Security); F3 (Food and Beverage); F4 (Personal Touch); F5 (Augmented Table Cluster of accommodation and service preferences Accommodation and service preferences Cluster I Cluster II Cluster III Cluster IV Cluster V Safety and Security (mean) Item 1: Hotel offers secure lifts and floor access Item 2: Hotel offers female only staff from housekeeping to room service Item 3: Hotel has brightly lit parking area Item 4: Hotel has a direct dial to security/police/safety authorities Room Amenities (mean) Item 5: Hotel offers a bigger room for female customers Item 6: Room has ironing board and steam iron Item 7: Room has full body mirror Item 8: Room has dressing mirror with white light Item 9: Hotel offers branded amenities and luxury bath products Item 10: Hotel offers luxury feminine toiletries (e.g nail polish, nail polish remover) Item 11: Room has sanitary pads Food and Beverage (mean) Item 12: Hotel offers healthy options in restaurant menu Item 13: Hotel offers food and beverage lounge and snack menu on dedicated floor Activities and Entertainment (mean) Item 14: Hotel offers activities that female guests can together Item 15: Hotel offers shopping vouchers and discounts Item 16: Hotel offers discounts for massages and spa treatments Item 17: Hotel offers free transport to nearby shopping malls Item 18: Hotel organizes bonding activities with girlfriends (e.g lunch, dinner or pool chats) 4.24 4.37 3.61 4.56 4.43 2.28 3.56 2.13 1.93 2.01 2.22 1.94 2.14 2.98 3.07 2.90 2.40 2.91 2.57 2.16 2.18 2.19 4.31 4.48 3.68 4.62 4.44 3.52 2.05 3.72 3.72 3.99 3.81 3.84 3.54 2.55 2.36 2.73 2.32 2.67 2.46 1.94 2.00 2.56 2.98 3.01 2.51 3.35 3.05 2.96 2.84 2.96 2.96 3.49 2.68 3.13 2.65 3.01 3.07 2.95 2.71 3.36 2.50 2.86 2.53 2.28 4.32 4.37 3.77 4.61 4.52 2.60 3.19 2.38 2.40 2.60 2.12 2.86 2.68 2.98 2.80 3.15 3.47 2.33 3.73 3.79 3.88 3.60 4.40 4.63 3.80 4.61 4.59 3.98 2.85 4.25 4.29 4.41 3.73 4.38 3.97 3.10 2.92 3.27 3.49 3.33 3.59 4.03 3.48 3.04 104 C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 Table Discriminant analysis results Accommodation and Service attributes Item Item Item 10 Item Item Item 11 Item 16 Item 17 Item15 Item Item Item Item2 Item 14 Item Item 18 Item 12 Item 13 Eigenvalue % of variance explained Canonical correlation Wilk’s Lambda * a DF1 * 548 495* 483* 425* 333* 328* 206 125 088 039 073 023 038 041 −.185 101 −.060 024 3.28 57.90 88a 05 DF2 DF3 DF4 −.171 −.134 −.042 −.147 −.262 −.046 609* 570* 338* 115 055 061 086 −.048 187 281 069 100 1.58 27.90 78a 20 −.108 001 −.012 021 111 085 −.178 −.062 044 649* 633* 594* 418* −.154 −.030 073 −.093 −.022 64 11.20 62a 52 056 218 −.068 302 149 057 243 −.151 −.004 150 243 041 049 551* 467* −.434* 319* 114* 17 2.90 38a 86 Significant loadings p < 0.01 Services) Cronbach’s alpha values for all factors met the minimum requirement of 0.7 for internal reliability and consistency (Hair et al., 2006) ANOVA results with Schéffe post hoc comparison of means on composite scores of the five performance factors and cluster membership, indicated significant differences between several of the clusters (see Table 5) On average, Cluster I (M = 2.56) rated Factor one (F1) ‘Hotel Room Amenities’ slightly better than Cluster II (M = 2.10) On Factor two (F2), significant differences existed on hotel performance scores between Clusters III, IV and V Cluster V (M = 2.97) on average rated ‘Safety and Security’ performance slightly better than Clusters IV (M = 2.92) and III (M = 2.24) Factor three (F3) was rated significantly different by Clusters II and V, whereby the latter assigned a higher performance score (M = 3.16) on average than the former (M = 2.98) Likewise, the factor ‘Augmented Services’ was rated significantly different by Clusters I, II, IV and V Clusters I (M = 3.36) and II (M = 3.20) on average rated the performance of this factors slightly better than Clusters IV (M = 2.56) and V (M = 2.75) Singh (1990) suggests that a statistical comparison of the cluster solution with a theoretically relevant variable (performance factors) not used to generate the cluster provides proof of external validity in segmentation studies In this case, the existence of significant differences between the clusters on the performance factors establishes the external validity of the five cluster solution 4.4 Cluster profiling by demographic and trip characteristics Demographic characteristics such as age group (2 = 17.28, p > 0.05), marital status (2 = 9.80, p > 0.05), nationality (2 = 31.29, p > 0.05), and educational level (2 = 20.18, p > 0.05) had no significant relationship with the clusters This suggests that the GGA segments identified from this sample are homogeneous in terms of demographic characteristics Trip characteristics such as previous stay (2 = 5.91, p > 0.05), number of nights stayed (2 = 10.72, p > 0.05), membership tenure (2 = 4.64, p > 0.05) and purpose of visit (2 = 14.59, p > 0.05) had no significant relationship with the clusters Table Factor analysis of hotel performance attributes Hotel performance attributes Factors F1 Room has high powered hair dryers Room has comfortable mattress and pillows Room provides additional bottles of drinking water Hotel offers superior quality bath towels Room offered with fresh fruits Hotel has 24 h visible security personnel on duty Hotel has safety deposit boxes Hotel notifies you before room delivery service Hotel offers healthy options in room-service menu Hotel offers a good breakfast buffet Hotel offers 24 h restaurant and coffee shop Room smells nice Room has a personal welcome note Hotel offers childcare services Hotel offers loyalty cards with added value (e.g discount on next stay or packaged hotel offers) Eigenvalue % of variance explained Cronbach’s alpha 845 833 815 779 736 016 015 024 067 052 −.127 042 201 008 002 3.29 21.91 0.91 F2 −.006 −.046 030 001 093 878 878 863 −.005 007 093 −.030 051 −.021 044 2.31 15.41 0.86 F3 027 042 −.038 −.061 −.010 031 025 046 938 924 729 −.128 −.081 −.005 −.029 2.30 15.34 0.85 F4 −.101 −.030 093 213 188 033 −.010 000 −.078 −.094 −.062 854 845 −.036 047 1.57 10.44 0.72 F5 −.042 −.018 010 −.004 073 −.008 009 025 −.015 −.011 −.014 −.001 012 870 865 1.51 10.10 0.74 105 C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 Table ANOVA results on hotel performance attributes Cluster/factor F1: Hotel Room Amenities F2: Safety and Security F3: Food and Beverage F4: Personal Touch F5: Augmented Services Cluster I (Safety Conscious) Cluster II (Safety & Amenities Driven) Cluster III (Food & Beverage Driven) Cluster IV (Safety & Activities Driven) Cluster V (Desirables) F Sig Post hoc test 2.56 2.10 2.21 2.44 2.24 4.91 001 Clusters I & II* 2.75 2.87 2.24 2.92 2.97 3.31 011 Clusters III & IV* Clusters III & V* 3.00 2.98 3.06 3.33 3.16 1.64 162 2.82 2.49 3.13 2.87 3.08 3.88 004 Clusters II & V* 3.36 3.20 3.25 2.56 2.75 5.80 000 Clusters I & IV* Clusters I & V* Clusters II & IV* * Indicates significant differences between the clusters at p < 0.05 Discussion and implications The main objective of this study was to segment the most salient accommodation and service attributes for female travelers on a GGA trip The results suggest the existence of five distinct segments within the GGA market that can be distinguished on the importance attached to different accommodation and service attributes However, this market is homogeneous in their demographic and trip characteristics in the Malaysian context These findings have several theoretical and managerial implications 5.1 Theoretical implications The findings confirm non-academic research on the GGA market (AAA, 2007; Bond, 2007, 2011; Cavallari, 2008; Grout, 2003, 2005; Mastercard, 2005) that this segment is different from the general female leisure or business traveler due to their accommodation and service preferences Specifically, the findings suggest that this market is driven by group orientation rather than individual orientation given the preference for services and activities that facilitate group interactions and bonding as evidenced in the preferences of Clusters II, IV and V Also, this is the first empirical study to systematically map five distinct clusters of the GGA market that establishes leisure travel of women with other women in groups as a clearly defined market segment beyond solo and business travel In terms of the importance and performance attached to various accommodation attributes, this study shows significant differences across the clusters While safety and security is of general importance to the GGA market, there is nevertheless a segment (Cluster III-Food & Beverage Driven) that assigns relatively low importance to this factor Also, one segment (Cluster II- Safety & Amenities Driven) assigns relatively higher importance to luxury bath products, sanitary items, manicure-related products, as well as bigger rooms Research on the female leisure and business travel market emphasizes the high importance attributed to safety and security and low importance to female-specific amenities as strong determinants of accommodation choice (Lutz and Ryan, 1993; Sammons et al., 1999; Phadungyat, 2008) Four of the five segments identified in this study assigned high importance to safety and security with the segment, Food & Beverage Driven (Cluster III) assigning relatively lower importance to this factor One plausible explanation for this occurrence may be related to the notion of ‘liberated self’ (Yarnal and Kerstetter, 2005) when traveling in groups The physical, social, and emotional detachment from the day-to-day realities of home may translate into feelings of being more in control of life than at home and a sense of liberation normally absent from daily life (Yarnal and Kerstetter, 2005; Yarnal et al., 2009) These authors showed in the context of cruise tourism that the presence of other group members provided a social and emotional safety net The GGA market is strongly driven by motives such as friendship and bonding (Gibson et al., 2012), hence, social and emotional safety may be of more importance than physical safety for Cluster III In general, research on female accommodation preferences indicates that women business travelers not place high importance on female-specific amenities (Lutz and Ryan, 1993; Sammons et al., 1999) However, Clusters II and V assigned relatively higher importance to amenities than other segments These findings suggest that the GGA market is interested in the ‘personal artifacts’ (luxury bath products) and space/function (bigger room) of the physical environment of hotels (Walls et al (2011)) In the context of luxury hotels, Walls et al (2011) noted that female travelers were specifically impacted by not only personal artifacts but also ambience and multi-sensory cues The ‘Personal Touch’ factor identified in this study provides support to the importance of sensory cues (e.g room smells nice) in hotel choice but was rated on average ‘poor’ in performance by three of the five clusters Food and beverage is an important aspect of guest satisfaction and loyalty to a hotel (Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000) Equally, it is well accepted that the presence of other people during food consumption has an influence on food intake (Klesges et al., 1984) In social settings, friends and family often facilitate food consumption (Stroebele and De Castro, 2004) It is therefore not surprising that two of the five clusters (Clusters III and V) assigned relatively high importance to food and beverage One plausible explanation for this occurrence may be related to the symbolic aspects of food consumption (Kniazeva and Venkatesh, 2007) When food consumption occurs in a setting involving other people, it becomes a key figure in establishing powerful interpersonal relationships (Kemmer et al., 1998; Yang et al., 2014) In this role, food becomes a powerful way to connect people (Kniazeva and Venkatesh, 2007) This resonates well with the GGA market given that an important activity is dining out as part of the social and bonding experience (Bond, 2009; Grout, 2005) Yet, Clusters III and V are relatively neutral on the performance of hotels on the factor food and beverage Previous studies (e.g., Pennington-Gray and Kerstetter, 2001) suggest that activities and entertainment are important to the female leisure travel market in general This study suggests that bonding activities such as shopping, discounts for massages and spa treatments, and other activities that girlfriends can together are of relatively higher importance to only specific segments of the GGA market (Clusters IV and V) For these women, activities that promote bonding between guests are important determinants of hotel choice However, even though past studies have highlighted the prominence of friendship in the context of leisure (Hutchinson et al., 2008; Son et al., 2007) and tourism (Gibson et al., 2012), the women in Clusters I, II and III not yet see how hotel amenities and services are promoting women friendships This could be partly due to the perception and expectation of the hotel as primarily for accommodation rather than an extension of the social aspects of the holiday experience 106 C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 5.2 Managerial implications The findings have several implications for hotel managers and destination marketers The high importance attached to safety and security by four of the five clusters suggests that safety is a hygiene factor in hotel choice for the GGA market Not only should hotels be able to provide a safe and secure environment for female guests, but also provide specific facilities such as the availability of a direct dial to safety authorities to attract the GGA market in Malaysia This attribute has not been previously identified as a salient attribute of hotel choice for female customers Hotels could, for example, include a “security card” listing the telephone numbers of important local safety authorities for customers Marketing the importance attached to safety and security by a hotel may serve as source of differentiation and positioning for hotels attempting to attract the GGA market It is also important to highlight that upscale hotels not have to invest heavily in room (re)design and amenities to attract the GGA market It is a matter of customizing existing products and services, but also communicating these to the targeted group For example, hotel and destination marketers should emphasize beyond safety and security attributes of the hotel, the quality of the amenities such as room size, availability of personalized products and personalized attention to service delivery All segments identified in this study rated on average the performance of room amenities as ‘poor’ This is an area of improvement particularly for upscale hotels, whereby the provision of, for example, high powered hair dryers, additional free bottles of water, and superior quality bath towels will improve perceptions of female customers interested in GGAs Some of these facilities are already offered by five star hotels in Malaysia and overseas However, upscale hotels may need to position such existing hotel amenities and facilities in a way that promote ideas of customization for the female market exclusively In addition, the findings offer insights into improving current products and developing new products for the GGA market The starting point for improving current products is the hotel attributes that were rated as below average on performance by GGA customers Hotel room amenities, safety and security, personal touch and augmented services were all rated as relatively low in performance by all segments While different segments of the market expect and value these factors differently, often based on the starrating of hotels, it may be necessary for hotel managers to improve personal touch, for example, by better management of the sensorial aspects of the hotel experience Using not only the visual, but also other aspects of the olfactory such as smell (e.g., pot-pourri in rooms and corridors), taste (e.g., food tasting menus in restaurant), and touch (e.g., use of different materials and textures in room and bathroom) to engage all the senses of the customer Providing childcare facilities, offering healthy food options on menus and 24 h visible security personnel on site are other ways to differentiate the hotel offer for the GGA market It is clear that this market consists mainly of non-budget travelers New product development can take the varied forms of girlfriend getaway packages For example, a basic holiday package could include tailored products for women such as security cards, favorite branded toiletries, scent diffuser, magazines and DVDs However, we emphasize that except for security cards, accommodation providers should be prepared to offer a range of amenities and facilities that female guests can choose from A superior GGA package could take into account new room configuration or the use of suite rooms that facilitate group chats At the very least, room design has to allow for several rooms to be connected Within a GGA package, hotels could generate additional streams of revenue by facilitating bonding activities either within existing premises or in joint ventures with local businesses Some examples could include wine and food/chocolate pairing workshops in the hotel restaurants to attract, for example, Cluster III (Food & Beverage Driven) A possible holiday package for Cluster IV (Safety & Activities Driven) could include private cabanas by the hotel pool with a snack and drinks hamper, private tours to specific local destinations (and these can be variedly themed according to such customers’ interests for instance, adventure, sports, volunteering, food connoisseurs, culture and heritage), and cooking classes For hotel managers, Cluster V (Desirables) can be a particularly attractive segment given that they assigned high importance to all facets of the hospitality offer that can be tailored to female only customers Hotels wanting to differentiate and position their hospitality offer from the mass market may be interested in this niche segment Using communication and relationship marketing tactics, hotels may be able to capitalize on the loyalty of this segment by improving hotel amenities, food and beverage, safety and security, as well as providing an extensive range of female-only activities and entertainment This segment could also be of interest to hotel developers that want to invest in facilities that are attractive to female customers other than business travelers Limitations and areas of future research The contributions of this study to the tourism and hospitality literature are twofold: we identify salient accommodation and service attributes for the GGA market; and we show that the GGA market is heterogeneous in their accommodation and service preferences but homogeneous in their demographic characteristics Despite these contributions, the study is not without limitations First, the sample size falls short of the recently prescribed requirements for effective data driven segmentation (Dolnicar et al., 2014) These findings may need to be replicated with a larger sample size Second, the GGA market was explored through a database of one hotel group The hotel group is not necessarily representative of all female customers of the GGA market Related to this is the homogeneity of the market on the basis of demographic and trip characteristics which is possibly contextual It would be necessary to extend this study by replicating it with female customers from other hotels in Malaysia but also customers from other countries to fully understand the GGA market Specifically, replication in western countries such as USA, Australia and New Zealand may provide different insights into the accommodation and service preferences of this market Third, while the list of items measured was extensive, it is possible that other items of importance may exist for this segment Further qualitative research is recommended to understand not only accommodation preferences but also motivation, expectations and on-site behavior of this market Fourth, hierarchical clustering methods are not without their own limitations (Dolnicar and Leisch, 2004) For more stable and reproducible clusters, future studies should employ other clustering techniques such as bagged clustering (Dolnicar and Leisch, 2004; Prayag and Hosany, 2014) and bi-clustering (Dolnicar et al., 2012) Finally, this study did not set out to investigate the inter-relationships between the participant’s preferences and hotel star-ratings Indeed, service preferences in a one-star accommodation would differ drastically from those in a five-star resort The sample for this study was derived from multiple properties ranging from three to five stars, hence future research could look into the impact of hotel star-ratings on the identified clusters of the GGA market Acknowledgements This manuscript was prepared during scholarship funded by The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State; and the Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange under the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 References AAA, 2007 AAA Girlfriend Travel Research, Retrieved from AAA and Aspire http://aspiremarketing.com/girlfriend-getaway-report-conducted-by-aaa-andaspire-marketing/ (accessed 26.02.14) Alamdari, F., Burrell, J., 2000 Marketing to female business travellers J Air Transport World Wide (2), 3–18 Anon., 1997, May 13 Specially for female travelers New Straits Times, 21 Anon, 22 September 2010 More women taking girlfriend getaway vacations Road & Travel 22, Ariffin, A.A.M., Maghzi, A., 2012 A preliminary study on customer expectations of hotel hospitality: influences of personal and hotel factors Int J Hospital Manage 31 (1), 191–198 Bakewell, C., Mitchell, V.-W., 2003 Generation Y female consumer decision-making styles Int J Retail Distrib Manage 31 (2), 95–106 Berdychevsky, L., Gibson, H.J., Bell, H.L., 2013 Girlfriend getaways and women’s well being J Leisure Res 45 (5), 602–623 Bond, M., 2007 A Woman’s World Again: True Stories of World Travel Solas House Inc., California Bond, M., 2009 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America National Geographic Society, Washington Bond, M., 2011 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America, Second ed National Geographic Society, Washington Cavallari, R., 2008 What women want: girlfriend getaways make up $6-billion travel segment Hotel Motel Manage 8, 24 Chen, W.J., Chen, M.L., 2014 Factors affecting the hotel’s service quality: relationship marketing and corporate image J Hospital Mark Manage 23 (1), 77–96 Chiang, C.Y., Jogaratnam, G., 2006 Why women travel solo for purposes of leisure? J Vacat Mark 12 (1), 59–70 Crompton, J.L., McKay, S.L., 1997 Motives of visitors attending festival events Ann Tourism Res 24 (2), 425–439 ´ ´ M., 2009 Segmentation of tourist markets – women as Curcic, N., Zakic, L., Galantic, consumers Geogra Temisiensis 19 (1–2), 67–74 Dolnicar, S., 2002 A review of data-driven market segmentation in tourism J Travel Tour Mark 12 (1), 1–22 Dolnicar, S., 2007 Market segmentation in tourism In: Woodside, A., Martin, D (Eds.), Tourism Management: Analysis, Behaviour, and Strategy CABI, Oxforshire, UK, pp 129–146 Dolniˇcar, S., 2004 Beyond commonsense segmentation: a systematics of segmentation approaches in tourism J Travel Res 42 (3), 244–250 Dolnicar, S., Grün, B., 2008 Challenging factor–cluster segmentation J Travel Res 47 (1), 63–71 Dolnicar, S., Grün, B., Leisch, F., Schmidt, K., 2014 Required sample sizes for datadriven market segmentation analyses in tourism J Travel Res 53 (3), 296–306 Dolnicar, S., Leisch, F., 2004 Segmenting markets by bagged clustering Australas Mark J (AMJ) 12 (1), 51–65 Dolnicar, S., Yanamandram, V., Cliff, K., 2012 The contribution of vacations to quality of life Ann Tourism Res 39 (1), 59–83 Dubé, L., Morgan, M.S., 1998 Capturing the dynamics of in-process consumption emotions and satisfaction in extended service transactions Int J Res Mark 15 (4), 309–320 Eid, R., El-Gohary, H., 2015 The role of Islamic religiosity on the relationship between perceived value and tourist satisfaction Tour Manage 46, 477–488 Euromonitor, 2010 Future watch: Will the flourishing trend of female-friendly products continue into the next few years?, Retrieved from Euromonitor International http://blog.euromonitor.com/2010/04/future-watch-willthe-flourishing-trend-of-femalefriendly-products-continue-into-the-nextfew-years.html (8 August 2014) Foster, N., Botterill, D., 1995 Hotels and the businesswoman: a supply-side analysis of consumer dissatisfaction Tour Manage 16 (5), 389–393 Friesen, T., 2013 Five affordable (and splurge-worthy) girlfriend getaways, Retrieved http://www.fodors.com/news/girlfriend-trips-and-bacheloretteparty-destinations-6531.html (4 August 2014) Frochot, I., Morrison, A.M., 2001 Benefit segmentation: a review of its applications to travel and tourism research J Travel Tour Mark (4), 21–45 Gentle, N., 2012 The 2012 Female Travel and Lifestyle Report, Retrieved www.lastminute.com (10 March 2014) Getaways, G., January 2008 Girlfriend getaways: single issue magazine Gibson, H.J., Berdychevsky, L., Bell, H.L., 2012 Girlfriend getaways over the life course: change and continuity Ann Leis Res 15 (1), 38–54 Glover, T.D., Parry, D.C., 2008 Friendships developed subsequent to a stressful life event: the interplay of leisure, social capital, and health J Leis Res 40 (2), 208–230 Graburn, N.H., 1983 The anthropology of tourism Ann Tour Res 10 (1), 9–33 Green, E., 1998 ‘Women doing friendship’: an analysis of women’s leisure as a site of identity construction, empowerment and resistance Leis Stud 17 (3), 171–185 Grout, P., 2003 Girlfriend Getaways: You Go Girl! And I‘ll Go, Too The Globe Pequot Press, Connecticut, USA Grout, P., 2005 Girlfriend Getaways: You Go Girl! And I‘ll Go, Too In: Connecticut, Second ed The Globe Pequot Press, USA Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., 2006 Multivariate Data Analysis Pearson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliff, NJ Harranek, C., 2014 15 top girlfriend getaways, Retrieved http://www.frommers.com (8 September 2014) Harris, C., Ateljevic, I., 2003 Perpetuating the male gaze as the norm: challenges for’her’participation in business travel Tour Recreat Res 28 (2), 21–30 107 Hutchinson, S.L., Yarnal, C.M., Staffordson, J., Kerstetter, D.L., 2008 Beyond fun and friendship: the Red Hat Society as a coping resource for older women Ageing Soc 28 (07), 979–999 Jennings, G.R., 2005 Caught in the irons: One of the lived experiences of long-term ocean cruising women Tour Rev Int (2), 177–193 Jordan, F., Gibson, H., 2005 We’re not stupid .but we’ll not stay at home either”: experiences of solo women travellers Tour Rev Int (2), 195–211 Kandampully, J., Suhartanto, D., 2000 Customer loyalty in the hotel industry: the role of customer satisfaction and image Int J Contemp Hospital Manage 12 (6), 346–351 Kasanicky, L., 2009 The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Girlfriend Getaways Penguin Books, New York Kemmer, D., Anderson, A.S., Marshall, D.W., 1998 The marriage menu: life, food and diet in transition In: Murcott, A (Ed.), The Nation’s Diet: The Social Science of Food Choice Longman, London, UK, pp 197–209 Kent, M., 2010 Women control over $20 trillion in world-wide spending, Retrieved http://www.coca-colacompany.com/topics/business (10 April 2014) Kim, S.S., Prideaux, B., 2005 Marketing implications arising from a comparative study of international pleasure tourist motivations and other travel-related characteristics of visitors to Korea Tour Manage 26 (3), 347–357 Kleiber, D.A., Hutchinson, S.L., Williams, R., 2002 Leisure as a resource in transcending negative life events: self-protection, self-restoration, and personal transformation Leis Sci 24 (2), 219–235 Klesges, R.C., Bartsch, D., Norwood, J.D., Kautzrnan, D., Haugrud, S., 1984 The effects of selected social and environmental variables on the eating behavior of adults in the natural environment Int J Eat Disord (4), 35–41 Kniazeva, M., Venkatesh, A., 2007 Food for thought: a study of food consumption in postmodern US culture J Consum Behav (6), 419–435 Kruger, M., Saayman, M., Ellis, S., 2011 Segmentation by genres: the case of the Aardklop National Arts Festival Int J Tour Res 13 (6), 511–526 Laing, K., Butterfield, E., 2002 Girlfriends’ Getaway: A Complete Guide to the Weekend Adventure that turns Friends into Sisters Colorado Springs Waterbrook Press, Colorado Lenskyj, H.J., 1994 Sexuality and femininity in sport contexts: issues and alternatives J Sport Social Issues 18 (4), 356–376 Loh, P., 2009 For women only: the exclusive ladies only floor at Thistle Johor Bahru, Retrieved http://www.travelific.my/travelstry full.php (10 April 2014) Lounsbury, J.W., Hoopes, L.L., 1988 Five-year stability of leisure activity and motivation factors J Leis Res 20 (1), 31–45 Lutz, J., Ryan, C., 1993 Hotels and the businesswoman: an analysis of businesswomen’s perceptions of hotel services Tour Manage 14 (5), 349–356 Mastercard, 2005 Women travellers of Asia Pacific: a new powerhouse, Retrieved from Mastercard International http://www.mastercard.com/cn/wce/PDF/ insights/2005/1st Quarter/Insights Women V4 en.pdf (20 September 2014) Mattila, A.S., 2000 The impact of culture and gender on customer evaluations of service encounters J Hosp Tourism Res 24 (2), 263–273 Mattila, A.S., Mount, D.J., 2003 The impact of selected customer characteristics and response time on e-complaint satisfaction and return intent Int J Hosp Manage 22 (2), 135–145 McCleary, K.W., Weaver, P.A., Lan, L., 1994 Gender-based differences in business travelers’ lodging preferences Cornell Hotel Restaur Adm Q 35 (2), 51–58 McDaniel, S.R., Kinney, L., 1998 The implications of recency and gender effects in consumer response to ambush marketing Psychol Mark 15 (4), 385–403 McNamara, K.E., Prideaux, B., 2010 A typology of solo independent women travellers Int J Tour Res 12 (3), 253–264 Morrison, A.M., 1996 Hospitality and Travel Marketing Delmar Publishers, Albany, USA Newth, F., 2011 The new strategic imperative: understanding the female business traveler Int Bus Econ Res J (IBER) (11) Park, D.-B., Yoon, Y.-S., 2009 Segmentation by motivation in rural tourism: a Korean case study Tour Manage 30 (1), 99–108 Pennington-Gray, L.A., Kerstetter, D.L., 2001 What university-educated women want from their pleasure travel experiences? J Travel Res 40 (1), 49–56 Phadungyat, P., (Master of Arts) 2008 Factors influencing the selection of serviced apartments by female business travellers Srinakharinwirot University, Thailand Prayag, G., 2010 Images as pull factors of a tourist destination: a factor-cluster segmentation analysis Tour Anal 15 (2), 213–226 Prayag, G., 2012 Paradise for who? Segmenting visitors’ satisfaction with cognitive image and predicting behavioural loyalty Int J Tour Res 14 (1), 1–15 Prayag, G., Hosany, S., 2014 When Middle East meets West: Understanding the motives and perceptions of young tourists from United Arab Emirates Tour Manage 40, 35–45 Pritchard, A., Morgan, N.J., 2000 Privileging the male gaze: gendered tourism landscapes Ann Tour Res 27 (4), 884–905 Sammons, G., Moreo, P., Benson, L.F., Demicco, F., 1999 Analysis of female business travelers’ selection of lodging accommodations J Travel Tour Mark (1), 65–83 Sarigöllü, E., Huang, R., 2005 Benefits segmentation of visitors to Latin America J Travel Res 43 (3), 277–293 Shim, S., Kotsiopulos, A., 1993 A typology of apparel shopping orientation segments among female consumers Cloth Text Res J 12 (1), 73–85 Silverstein, M.J., Sayre, K., 2009 The female economy Harv Bus Rev 87 (9), 46–53 Singh, J., 1990 A typology of consumer dissatisfaction response styles J Retailing 66 (1), 57–99 Smith, W.W., Carmichael, B.A., 2007 Domestic business travel in Canada with a focus on the female market J Travel Tour Mark 21 (1), 65–76 108 C Khoo-Lattimore, G Prayag / International Journal of Hospitality Management 45 (2015) 99–108 Son, J.S., Kerstetter, D.L., Yarnal, C.M., Baker, B.L., 2007 Promoting older women’s health and well-being through social leisure environments: what we have learned from the Red Hat Society® J Women Aging 19 (3–4), 89–104 Stone, G.J., Nichol, S., 1999 Older, single female holidaymakers in the United Kingdom—Who needs them? J Vacat Mark (1), 7–17 Stroebele, N., De Castro, J.M., 2004 Effect of ambience on food intake and food choice Nutrition 20 (9), 821–838 Tai, S.H., Tam, J.L., 1997 A lifestyle analysis of female consumers in greater China Psychol Mark 14 (3), 287–307 Tanford, S., 2013 The impact of tier level on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty of hotel reward program members Int J Hosp Manage 34, 285–294 Tkaczynski, A., Rundle-Thiele, S., 2010 Event segmentation: a research agenda Tour Manage 32 (2), 426–434 Tuma, M.N., Decker, R., Scholz, S., 2011 A survey of the challenges and pitfalls of cluster analysis application in market segmentation Int J Market Res 53 (3) UNWTO, 2013 Tourism Highlight, 2013 Edition United Nations World Tourism Organization, Madrid, Retrieved from www.mkt.unwto.org/en/barometer Vellas, F., Becherel, L., 1999 International Marketing of Travel and Tourism: A Strategic Approach Macmillan Press Ltd., Basingstoke, UK Walls, A.R., Okumus, F., Wang, Y.R., Kwun, D.J.-W., 2011 An epistemological view of consumer experiences Int J Hosp Manage 30 (1), 10–21 Ward, T., 2013 America’s best girlfriend getaways, Retrieved http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-best-girlfriend-getaways (7 September 2014) Weaver, D., Oppermann, M., 2000 Tourism Management John Wiley and Sons, Milton, Australia Wilkeming, D., 2007 Poll finds new trends in girls getaways, Retrieved www.travelmole.com (9 September 2014) Wilson, E., Little, D.E., 2008 The solo female travel experience: exploring the ‘geography of women’s fear’ Curr Issues Tour 11 (2), 167–186 Yang, C.L., Khoo-Lattimore, C., Lai, M.Y., 2014 Eat to live or live to eat? Mapping food and eating perception of Malaysian Chinese J Hosp Mark Manage., 1–22 (E-pub ahead-of-print) Yarnal, C.M., Kerstetter, D., 2005 Casting off an exploration of cruise ship space, group tour behavior, and social interaction J Travel Res 43 (4), 368–379 Yarnal, C.M., Kerstetter, D., Chick, G., Hutchinson, S., 2009 The Red Hat Society® : an exploration of play and masking in older women’s lives From Children to Red Hatters: Diverse Images and Issues of Play, 144–165